GE Aviation secure deal for new Airbus for Hamble plant

And now the new Airbus will safeguard 850 jobs here in Hampshire.

Engineering giant GE Aviation has begun developing its huge new 9,000 sq m state-of-the-art facility at its site in Hamble as part of a five-year, £32m, cash injection.

The investment has now secured the future of the plant, and its hundreds of highly skilled and well paid jobs for years to come.

It will pave the way for an expanding apprentice programme.

The new facilities will make crucial wing components for the much-anticipated Airbus A350 XWB which is billed as the next generation of long-haul passenger aircraft.

The most advanced aircraft of it type is tipped to fly over the Paris Air Show today, following its maiden flight last week.

Supplying Airbus will be the largest production contract awarded in the plant’s 75-year history, comprising more than 3,000 components that include structural composite panels and complex machined assemblies.

It will also enable the Hamble site to ramp-up the output of wing fixed trailing edge components for Airbus’ A350-800, A350-900 and A350-1000 aircraft, reaching the capacity to deliver up to 13 shipsets per month.

Steve Walters, general manager of mechanical systems for GE Aviation, said: “Our new production capability at Hamble is part of investments that contribute to a transformation of GE Aviation’s aerostructures business as we meet the program requirements of today and in the future.”

The new composites facility is based on a sustainable building concept that will include a 2,000sq m clean room, two autoclaves and four large curing ovens for out-of-autoclave composites production, five-axis machine tools, non-destructive testing facilities and offices for administrat ive and engineering personnel.

The development involves the complete conversion of two existing buildings at the historic Hamble-le-Rice aviation production site in S o u t h a m p t o n , Hampshire to create the new facility, which is expected to become operational in early 2015.

Airbus has already taken more than 600 orders for the new plane so far.

Contracts for the plane have secured 100,000 jobs across Britain, from the wings designed in Filton near Bristol and manufactured in Broughton, Wales, to the Rolls-Royce engines designed and built in Derby.

The Hamble site was formerly known as Smiths Aviation until a £2.4 billion takeover by American giant General Electric in 2007.

GE Aviation, an operating unit of GE (NYSE: GE), is a worldleading provider of jet and turboprop engines, components, aeropstructures , nacelles and integrated systems for commercial, military, business and general aviation aircraft.